Articles

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 Visions

There's little doubt that World War II makes for exciting, believable first-person shooter game experiences. Ubisoft is currently involved in a new project with Gearbox Software which could well take the genre to the next level. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is expected to hit PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC midway through March, so in order to give you a better sense of the kind of realism that the game is aiming for, we've got a selection of brand new in-game screens along with some real-life counterparts and brief descriptions straight from the team at Gearbox.

This is another image of the M4A4 Sherman medium tank. Notice the .30 caliber bow machine gun on the left front glacis (slope) of the tank. You will also notice the tank commander standing in the open hatch. He is using binoculars to search for German troops, antitank weapons and tanks. Tank commanders were trained to fight with their head and shoulders sticking out of the turret to gain maximum visibility. A tank commander would close the hatch, or "button up" in tank terminology, only when forced to do so and when under direct enemy sniper, machine gun or artillery fire. Once buttoned up, the tank commander's visibility, and therefore his ability to direct the main gun against enemy targets and tell the driver where to go, were severely reduced.